The special features of the MENA region when it comes to governing religion and religious diversity

Yeah, so when we talk about religious diversity in the MENA region, I think we talk about two things. First, the relation between the different religious communities, so Christian-Muslim relations. And relations of Islamic actors within the Islamic religious sphere. On the first point, the Arab state– if you look at Syria, Egypt, the relation between the state and the Christian communities in both countries would always go through the church. So the church would represent these communities to the state. However with the Arab Spring, this has changed. So you had Christians shooting Christians, Egyptian Christians who took to the streets, joined Arab Spring asking to be represented as Egyptians and Syrians not as members of a religious community.

However, because of the failure of the Arab Spring in both countries, now we are back again to square one where the church took back again its position as the main representative of these communities.